Democrats Respond To State Of The State

Wyoming Democrats say they were mostly pleased with the governor’s State of the State message. But while they agree the state should be cautious with spending, they don’t favor reductions.  House Minority Floor Leader Pat Goggles wishes Gov. Mead had spent more time on worker safety.  Goggles says it is time get serious about the situation.

“We’d like to see more positions in compliance in terms of worker safety and work to change the culture of safety,” says Goggles.

Cheyenne Democrat Mary Throne also wants more of a focus on enforcement of worker safety laws.  She also says the state has billions in reserve to ease any possible budget cuts. 

“We have another half billion dollars in a school holding account,” says Throne. “We have $144-million in the spending policy reserve account for the permanent mineral trust fund and then we continue to divert a percentage of severance tax money statutorily to the permanent mineral trust fund that could be available if we needed it.”

Senator Chris Rothfuss hopes lawmakers will fund pay increases for state employees and works to improve education.